Chapter 333: Chapter 290: The Focus of the World – Morocco

Of course, although the per capita cultivated land area seems to have only increased by 0.02 acres, the total cultivated land has expanded by approximately 2.18 million acres.

After all, the population has grown by more than 900,000, and to maintain the same level of per capita cultivated land, a large amount of land must be reclaimed for cultivation.

Thanks to the increase in cultivated land area, Australasia’s food production in 1910 also saw a significant increase, already breaking through 9.6 million tons.

This brings Australasia’s food production to just a step away from 10 million tons, and by next year, when the population exceeds 10 million, food production should also break the 10 million mark.

However, throughout 1910, Australasia’s total food consumption was less than 2.9 million tons, which means that Australasia can export 6 million tons of food annually, which is not a small income.

Of course, due to the signing of a further trade agreement with the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom has become the main target of Australasia’s food exports.

Australasia exports at least 2 million tons of food to the United Kingdom every year, confirming the close relationship between the United Kingdom and Australasia.

This is the current development of the government, as for the development of the royal financial group, Arthur can only describe it as enormous.

After the cabinet meeting, through a report from Butler Kent, Arthur understood how huge the current royal financial group is for Australasia.

Of course, last year’s royal financial group was already huge enough, and this year it expanded even more on top of that.

At present, the royal financial group has established hundreds of factories and enterprises, and holds stakes in thousands of them.

The total number of employees in all the enterprises and factories managed by the royal financial group has exceeded 500,000, covering every state, field, and industry in Australasia.

In 1910, the royal financial group’s net profit reached 54.31 million Australian dollars, even after deducting nearly 10 million Australian dollars in taxes for the government.

The royal financial group’s net income is only 10 million Australian dollars less than the country’s total fiscal revenue, showing the vast scale of the royal financial group in Australasia.

Even without exaggeration, as long as Arthur wants, the royal financial group’s net income can surpass the country’s total fiscal revenue at any time.

However, the royal financial group only controls some of Australasia’s more important industries, such as heavy industry, petroleum, chemical industry, military industry, and so on., Some civil industries and fields are not too involved with the royal financial group, after all, the people of Australasia should have some opportunities.

If there is currently a ranking of the world’s top 500 enterprises, Arthur believes that his royal financial group would definitely rank among the top ten.

A net profit of up to 54 million Australian dollars, which is equivalent to 27 million pounds, is rare in this era, and this income even surpasses some small and medium-sized European countries.

In mid-January 1911, the Chilean diplomatic delegation finally arrived in Australasia again to inspect the Hope-class battleship designed by Australasia.

This time the Chilean diplomatic delegation included several naval officers and high-ranking government officials, who were obviously very interested in the new, highly powerful battleship that Australasia claimed.

Frankly, with the exception of the Chileans’ expectations for the Hope-class battleship being somewhat unmet, other aspects such as firepower, power, and armor protection are basically similar or even superior to the Chileans’ requirements.

Chile’s final stubbornness about tonnage was defeated by Minister of Defence Raul’s statement that tonnage was not as important as combat power.

However, this is indeed a truth, instead of blindly pursuing the tonnage and size of warships, it is better to focus on the speed, firepower, and protection capabilities of warships.

Even a large warship with weak combat power could become a live target in naval battles, and it might be the fastest one to sink.

After a week of discussions between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chilean delegation, the final naval order was finally confirmed.

The Chilean side has funded a total of 5 million pounds, which is 10 million Australian dollars, to purchase two Hope-class battleships, six Duke-class escort ships, and two German submarines.

This order is expected to start in the middle of this year. The two submarines will be delivered no later than mid-1913, the six escort ships will be delivered no later than mid-1914, and the two Hope-class battleships will be delivered no later than the end of 1915.

Overall, the schedule for this naval order is quite generous, allowing the Royal Shipyard to manage the production of Chilean naval orders while completing the Russian naval orders.

Of course, there is also a disadvantage, that is, at least until 1914, the Royal Shipyard will have no time to build Australasia’s own warships.

However, this is a minor issue. When World War I comes and the European countries are busy with the war, Australasia will have plenty of time and resources to build its own fleet, which is not urgent at the moment.

The two Hope-class battleships were excitedly named by the Chileans as Admiral Latore Naval Vessel and Admiral Kecklen Naval Vessel. Perhaps this is the dream of the rise of the navy of a small nation!

It cannot be denied that although the countries of South America are not very large, their investment in the military, especially the navy, is quite generous.

After the naval order was signed, Arthur received a brief gap in his schedule. However, at this moment, Arthur was waiting for news from Europe.

According to the information from the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, the Moroccan crisis seems to be imminent.

Of course, this is not Arthur’s prediction.

In fact, Morocco’s situation has not been very good in recent years. Due to the weather, Morocco has experienced a rare drought, leading to an agricultural crisis in many areas, crop failures, and unbearable suffering for farmers.

Moreover, the shortsightedness of the Sultan’s government and the corruption of some officials have exacerbated the situation. As the disaster was already evident, no relief measures were taken, but instead, some taxes were increased, causing great dissatisfaction among the lower-class citizens and successive revolts against taxation.

On the other hand, France has controlled Moroccan politics since the First Moroccan Crisis.

A large number of French products have impacted Morocco’s native economy, causing many craftsmen in Morocco to go bankrupt one after another, leading to dissatisfaction among the majority of the middle class towards the government.

Offending both the middle and lower-class citizens, it is easy to imagine how chaotic the country is with such a decayed upper echelon and government.

In January 1911, a large-scale uprising broke out in Morocco. Dissatisfied with the government and the Sultan, the people called for the overthrow of the government and besieged some cities.

The wave of uprisings swept through most of Morocco and made the French government behind Morocco uneasy.

Because apart from opposing the Sultan, some of the rebels’ claims were also against French invaders.

If these rebels overthrow the Sultan’s government, wouldn’t their next target be the French colonists?

In February 1911, the severe internal situation in Morocco made the French impatient. The French government occupied Fes City and some nearby cities under the pretext of protecting expatriates and restoring Moroccan order.

Faced with the French army, the small Moroccan forces had no resistance at all. The majority of the rebels, composed of ordinary people, were no match for the French Army. In the face of the French Army, they could be said to be in disarray.

At the same time as France’s actions, Spain also sent troops to station in the north of Morocco, which has also made Morocco’s de facto independence status lost.

France’s actions in Morocco have caused dissatisfaction among some European countries. The most dissatisfied among them is the German Empire.

Because France’s actions brazenly violated the Algeciras Treaty signed five years ago due to the First Moroccan Crisis.

Even though the French ambassador Kang Bond had informed the German Foreign Minister Kidron of France’s decision to dispatch troops to Morocco before France’s actions, the problem was that Kidron had clearly opposed it at that time. He believed that the deployment of French troops would not only destroy the Algeciras Agreement but also cause even more fierce resistance from Moroccans and dissatisfaction from German people.

When talking about the dissatisfaction of the German people, German Foreign Minister Kidron also strengthened his tone, expressing Germany’s attitude.

The Germans’ view is to hope that France could postpone the military occupation and negotiate well with the German government on this matter.

In fact, the open and hidden meaning is to let France make some concessions in other areas. After all, everything can be negotiated as long as the benefits are sufficient.

But what the Germans did not expect was that they thought France would make concessions elsewhere, but instead, France maintained a consistent hard-line attitude, even dispatching troops to interfere in Morocco’s order directly without notifying Germany.

This not only directly invalidated the previously signed Algeciras Treaty but also slapped Germany in the face.

After all, Germany is also the second major power in the world. France’s backstabbing in Morocco has left Germany with no face. Where would Germany’s face go?

By coincidence, William II’s temper is not so good. Germany has many interests in Morocco too. France’s complete disregard for Germany’s interests in Morocco is enough to change the attitude of the outraged German government.

But the question is, can France dare to back down now? The French government’s hard-line stance has pleased the French people since Germany is a country that had stepped on France just a few decades ago to achieve unification.

If the French government quickly compromises with the Germans, the disillusioned French people might not mind changing the cabinet directly.

It should be noted that France has a long tradition of revolution. France’s cabinet does not want to test the bottom line of the people. They are brave enough to rebel!

Under such high pressure, the German side is urging the German government to take appropriate actions to protect the interests of the German people due to the continuous pressure from the German media and monopoly organizations.

Under such pressure, to force at least a major concession from France on compensation, Foreign Minister Kidron presented a brilliant plan to Emperor William II of Germany, which was to send warships to the important ports of Agadir and Mogador in Morocco under the so-called pretext of protecting German expatriates and their commercial interests.

If such vital collateral can be secured, the Germans can calmly watch the further development of the Moroccan incident, and even wait for the possible compensation that France might propose to exchange some colonies to get the Germans out of these two ports.

Kidron’s plan is very loud, and by occupying these two chips in the chaotic Morocco now, France needs to use other regional colonies to exchange for these two ports if it wants to unify its interests in Morocco.

But the question is, will the Germans’ act of directly dispatching troops really not escalate the severity of the situation?